Letters to the Editor

To the Editor: As the original author of legislation finally enacted in 1968 putting four national holidays on a Monday, I am sorry to see The Times changing its mind on the desirability of this shift (editorial Oct. 26) especially for what are such flimsy reasons.

We have now experienced all four of these new Monday holidays in 1971. Besides that, July 4 fell on a Monday and so was also celebrated as a threeday holiday weekend. Somehow the Republic survived; and my own impression, though I cannot document it, is that the change has generally proved popular.

Your lament stems from what you regard as a somewhat lackluster celebration of Veterans Day Oct. 25, “another of those semi‐demi‐holidays,” as you put it, “which commemorate no specific event in history and which nobody quite knows what to do with.”

But your disenchantment resulted, daresay, from the atrocious weather we had over that particular weekend. Actually, as a national holiday Veterans Day has never been as fully observed as Memorial Day or the Fourth of July. Stores have remained open, just as they do regularly on Washington's Birthday. The shift to Monday has not yet altered that pattern. But despite the fact that Veterans Day did not fall this year on Nov. 11, Birmingham, Ala., where the sun shone brightly on Oct. 25, put on, as I understand it, one of the greatest tributes to our veterans ever held in that city's history.

I believe our experience this year shows that, contrary to your estimate, the American people did take both Washington's Birthday and Memorial Day “to their hearts” as Monday holidays, and in addition warmly welcomed the opportunity to celebrate Columbus Day for the first time as an official national holiday, the only new holiday, incidentally, which you say “Congress has manufactured.”

SAMUEL S. STRATTON, M.C.

29th District, New York

Washington, Oct. 29, 1971

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A version of this archives appears in print on November 23, 1971, on Page 40 of the New York edition with the headline: Letters to the Editor. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe